The Steelers' DeMarcus Van Dyke was called for holding against the Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium Oct. 2012. Chaz Palla | Tribune Review

Throwing around words such as “egregious” and “repeat offenders,” Mike Tomlin sounded more like a judge than a football coach.

He’s not about to go soft on those he finds guilty.

Tomlin is running out of patience with all the penalties on Steelers’ special teams. Four were called Sunday in Cincinnati, all for holding, that cost the Steelers 94 yards’ worth of returns.

The most costly mistake was a holding penalty by DeMarcus Van Dyke that wiped out a 33-yard punt return by Antonio Brown to the Bengals’ 44. The Steelers were pushed back to their 13, and Ben Roethlisberger fumbled to set up a Bengals touchdown on the next play.

In Oakland, a Brown punt return for an apparent touchdown was nullified by penalties for blocking below the waist and holding.

“We believe we have some dynamic return men,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “Penalties negated that effort. What is going on in our return game from a penalty standpoint is disturbing.”

The Steelers fired special teams coordinator Al Everest just before the season began and replaced him with assistant Amos Jones, yet they already have 11 special teams penalties for 102 yards.

“To be quite honest with you, the multiple offenders and egregious offenders are going to be watching as opposed to playing as soon as we get some options as to who plays and who doesn’t,” Tomlin said. “Right now, with injuries, we have minimal options.”

Van Dyke has three holding penalties in the past two games, plus an earlier penalty for going out of bounds while playing a punt. Stevenson Sylvester has two holding calls. Ike Taylor, Jason Worilds and Will Allen all have one penalty each; Adrian Robinson had one nullified.

Tomlin hopes that losing a job will serve as a deterrent to younger players trying to make their way in the NFL.

“You can take the helmet off them and have them watch,” Tomlin said. “That’s what we intend to do if they don’t improve in that area.”

On Tuesday Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin sent a strong message to his special teams players when he said that several could have their helmets taken away from them as a result of all the penalties that have negated some good returns as of late.

Tomlin talked about the penalties in relation to what happened Sunday night in the win over the Cincinnati Bengals as the special teams units were flagged five times in the game.

"In the special teams game we wanted to be explosive in the return game," said Tomlin. "We're capable of that and we believe that we have some dynamic return men and penalties negated that effort. What's going on in the return game from a penalty standpoint is disturbing and we must improve in that area. To be honest with you, the multiple offenders, or the egregious offenders, are going to be watching as opposed to playing as soon as we get some options in regards to who plays and who doesn't."

Tomlin did admit though that the health of the team might limit is ability to take action right away.

"Right now with injuries, we have minimal options," said Tomlin. "We'll continue to work with these men, but the first chance we get, we'll send a strong message in regards to that - that we won't accept that kind of performance."

The most egregious violators thus far on special teams who Tomlin is referring to are DeMarcus Van Dyke and Stevenson Sylvester. Van Dyke has been flagged five times in the last three games and Sylvester has had two flags thrown in his direction since returning from his injury.

When asked what he can do to help those offenders moving forward, Tomlin was pretty straight forward with his answer.

"You can take their helmet off and make them watch and that's what we intend to do if they don't improve in that area," said Tomlin. "The egregious offenders and the repeat offenders."

Needless to say you can bet that both Van Dyke and Sylvester are well aware that they are in the crosshairs of Tomlin right now.

"Right now with injuries, we have minimal options," said Tomlin. "We'll continue to work with these men, but the first chance we get, we'll send a strong message in regards to that - that we won't accept that kind of performance."

The most egregious violators thus far on special teams who Tomlin is referring to are DeMarcus Van Dyke and Stevenson Sylvester.

Deeds, not words - I recall Tomlin was going to "unleash hell" after the Oakland loss in 2009 - the Steelers then went to Cleveland and crapped the bed on the following Thursday night and no heads rolled

My guess is that if penalty machine Van Dyke or Sylvester screw up again nothing will happen because "with injuries, we have minimal options."

I will believe it if someone gets released if they screw up again in the Redskins game

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